The Plague Cross, Szentendre Main Square

Pest · Ungern · Urban site

The plague took a single victim in town — a young girl. She was buried upside down beneath the cross so the sickness could not find its way out.

In the middle of Szentendre's main square stands an ornate stone cross raised by the merchants' guild in 1763 in gratitude that the plague had spared the town. Popular tradition gives the monument a darker backstory. According to the legend the epidemic claimed a single victim within the town's boundaries: a young girl. So that the sickness could not climb back out of the earth, she was buried face down, upside down, and the cross was set directly over her like a lid. Ask older residents of Szentendre and you will be told not to sit on the cross's plinth, and that the stone stays cold even in high summer. The town now holds an annual plague-expelling festival built on this very eighteenth-century legend. Nobody has ever wanted to lift the plinth to check.

FAQ

Where is The Plague Cross, Szentendre Main Square located?

The Plague Cross, Szentendre Main Square is in Pest, Ungern.

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